Yahoo Cranks Up Awards Show Content

Yahoo is doubling down on its awards show content this year—a move that includes the launch of an original Web series.

Road to the Awards Show premiered Tuesday (Jan. 11) on the site’s entertainment/gossip hub omg! It provides fans with previews of The Golden Globes, which will air on Sunday (Jan. 16). Yahoo will produce three episodes of Road to the Awards Show prior to each of the three major awards shows: the Globes, the Grammys (Feb. 13) and the Academy Awards (Feb. 27). The Grammy-related episodes will live on Yahoo Music, with the Oscar-themed clips appearing on Yahoo Movies.

Road to the Awards Show is the centerpiece of Yahoo’s heavy awards coverage, which has grown over the past several years as more people relive, dissect and critique the programs the next day—and increasingly, as the shows air—on the Web and mobile devices. Last year, for example, omg! attracted 9 million unique visitors the day after the Globes aired, generating over 600 million page views. Similarly, Yahoo Movies nabbed 11 million-plus users the day after last year’s Oscars.

“[The] last several years we’ve been watching this incredible growth leading into the show, and then insane interest the night of and the day after,” said Sibyl Goldman, vp of Yahoo Entertainment. “The awards season for entertainment fans is like three Super Bowls . . . and there is this massive amount of Monday morning quarterbacking. So this year, we asked: 'How could we treat awards shows more cohesively since they’ve become this tent pole event for Yahoo?'”

Besides launching a new series, Yahoo has also dialed up awards-related blogs and photo galleries. And the company has borrowed a tactic from Yahoo Sports by introducing an online fantasy game through which fans can guess each show’s winners.

Also, for the first time, Yahoo has landed an exclusive sponsor for all of its awards show coverage. Chrysler will receive presence on omg!, Yahoo Movies and Yahoo Music, as well as Road to the Awards Show.

“[Chrysler] actually reached out to us,” said Goldman. “They wanted to talk about luxury as a positioning, and . . . this was kind of the perfect fit.”

Yahoo is doubling down on its awards show content this year—a move that includes the launch of an original Web series.

Road to the Awards Show premiered Tuesday (Jan. 11) on the site’s entertainment/gossip hub omg! It provides fans with previews of The Golden Globes, which will air on Sunday (Jan. 16). Yahoo will produce three episodes of Road to the Awards Show prior to each of the three major awards shows: the Globes, the Grammys (Feb. 13) and the Academy Awards (Feb. 27). The Grammy-related episodes will live on Yahoo Music, with the Oscar-themed clips appearing on Yahoo Movies.

Road to the Awards Show is the centerpiece of Yahoo’s heavy awards coverage, which has grown over the past several years as more people relive, dissect and critique the programs the next day—and increasingly, as the shows air—on the Web and mobile devices. Last year, for example, omg! attracted 9 million unique visitors the day after the Globes aired, generating over 600 million page views. Similarly, Yahoo Movies nabbed 11 million-plus users the day after last year’s Oscars.

“[The] last several years we’ve been watching this incredible growth leading into the show, and then insane interest the night of and the day after,” said Sibyl Goldman, vp of Yahoo Entertainment. “The awards season for entertainment fans is like three Super Bowls . . . and there is this massive amount of Monday morning quarterbacking. So this year, we asked: 'How could we treat awards shows more cohesively since they’ve become this tent pole event for Yahoo?'”

Besides launching a new series, Yahoo has also dialed up awards-related blogs and photo galleries. And the company has borrowed a tactic from Yahoo Sports by introducing an online fantasy game through which fans can guess each show’s winners.

Also, for the first time, Yahoo has landed an exclusive sponsor for all of its awards show coverage. Chrysler will receive presence on omg!, Yahoo Movies and Yahoo Music, as well as Road to the Awards Show.

“[Chrysler] actually reached out to us,” said Goldman. “They wanted to talk about luxury as a positioning, and . . . this was kind of the perfect fit.”